Suzanne Pohland Paterno (; born February 14, 1940), sometimes referred to as "SuePa", is an American philanthropist. She is the widow of football coach

Joe Paterno Joseph Vincent Paterno (; December 21, 1926 – January 22, 2012), sometimes referred to as JoePa, was an American college football player, athletic director, and coach. He was the head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions from 1966 to 2 ...

, who led the

Penn State Nittany Lions The Penn State Nittany Lions are the athletic teams of Pennsylvania State University, except for the women's basketball team, known as the Lady Lions. The school colors are navy blue and white. The school mascot is the Nittany Lion. The interc ...

from 1966 to 2011.

Early life and education

Suzanne Pohland was born on February 14, 1940 in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. She studied English literature at Penn State University, where she met then-assistant coach

. Shortly after her graduation in 1962, Joe and Sue were married. She taught at a local school in

Centre County, Pennsylvania Centre County is a county in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. As of the 2020 census, the population was 158,172. Its county seat is Bellefonte. Centre County comprises the State College, PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. History The lands ...

for a year before leaving to give birth to her first child, Diana. Joe and Sue had 5 children together: Diana, Mary Kay, David, Scott, and

Jay A jay is a member of a number of species of medium-sized, usually colorful and noisy, passerine birds in the Crow family, Corvidae. The evolutionary relationships between the jays and the magpies are rather complex. For example, the Eurasian m ...

; they all graduated from Penn State.

Philanthropy

Together, Joe and Sue Paterno donated millions of dollars to Penn State and to other charities, most notably, the

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in ...

. In 2010, Sue Paterno led the charge to build a

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

student faith center on the Penn State University Park campus. The Suzanne Pohland Paterno Catholic Student Faith Center opened in 2012.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paterno, Sue 1940 births Living people Pennsylvania State University alumni